July 13, 2008 9:43 AM

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says that he won’t back down on his “tough love” message to African Americans -– a subject that prompted Jesse Jackson's angry open-mic gaffe this past week.

Obama told reporters aboard his plane to San Diego that Americans need to recognize that there is a problem when more than a half of African American children are growing up without a father in the house.

“That is a problem and I won’t back up one bit in asserting that that’s a problem that we have to be honest about,” he said.

Obama’s tough love message to African American fathers came most notably in a Fathers Day speech last month in which he told fathers that “any ol' fool” could conceive a child –- but it takes a man to be father.

Many, including Jesse Jackson, took issue with the speech, and the manner in which Obama spoke to his audience. This week, Jackson sparked a controversy when Fox News Channel released a video in which Jackson was caught with a hot mic saying that Obama was “talking down to black people.”

Obama confirmed that Jackson’s feelings were well known to him before the tape was released –- communicated to him from Jackson himself.

“I had spoken to him before, a few days before what he said was released,” Obama said, “and we had actually discussed some of the concerns he had raised about my fatherhood speech.”

Obama said that he told Jackson be believes that there are structural inequalities in the country that have to be dealt with.

“My argument is simply that it’s not an 'either-or' proposition, it’s a 'both-and' proposition,” Obama said. “The government and society as a whole has an obligation to deal with poverty, particularly poverty that’s deep-rooted not just in the inner cities, but in rural communities all across America.”

Obama said his conversation with Jackson was not met with a lot of open resistance on the other end of the phone.

“In my conversation, I think it would be hard for him to disagree with that since many of the things I have said are the things that he has said in the past,” Obama said.

The presumptive Democratic nominee has since accepted Jackson’s apology for his remarks, but confirmed they have not spoken since the controversial tapes of Jackson were released.

Is This Why Jesse Hates Obama ?
An Open Letter From Najee Ali

EXCERPT: “Over the years I have had the pleasure to spend several holidays with your daughter including Christmas, her birthday parties and other milestones in her life. I will never turn my back on Ashley her mom and their family.

Your daughter has never traveled or taken a trip with you, you have an annual birthday party in Beverly Hills every year…”

To read FULL LETTER VISIT:
http://www.Blacks4Barack.org
A Multi-Racial, Net/Grassroots org…Dedicated To Truth !

Obama news updates, photos, Celebs 4 Obama, volunteer info, videos, voter registration, Create-Your-Own Obama Logo (FREE), SpeakOut4Obama, Join B4B, Media Lies of the Week and Much More !

p.s. Also, see B4B’s Official Obama Hater Watch

In 2004, he was trading in them stereotypes. Change and convention are mutually exclusive and the stereotypes Obama specializes in are those that are part of the racist and internalized racist conventions Blacks and Whites buy into.

Obama needs to know his role. He's a politician. His business is politics. His role is to talk about, push and, as president, implement policies. No more. No less.

And Taritac is showing the hypocrisy of posters here. When it's time for Barack Obama to treat Black people like they he does every other demographic group and talk about POLICIES (personal responsibility isn't government policy) he intends to work on in the interest of that group then it was “he's not running for president of Black America.”

So the message is Black people needn't think they should be respected or ever treated equal to others, much less rewarded for their support to politicians. Most of the people quoting out of wedlock birth aren't intelligent enough or earnest enough to actually identify what makes that an issue.

I'd like to see someone explain how those non-marriage numbers rose the way they did and Black poverty went the opposite direction. Is that kind of surface level thinking that has Black people jumping at anything someone says that's doesn't speak well of the Black community. That's why Obama's dumb azz (and you're a dumb mf when you believe) that “Acting White” stuff the way it's presented in the media.

I'm like Al Sharpton. Don't give me Republican or racist lite… When I won't bs racist stereotypes about Black people I'll go to hardcore not trying to fake like they're something else racist.

I must admit, that I find Obama's approach interesting, i.e. to point out the multipliers of the results of “missing” or the inactions of any fathers, e.g. “five time”, “nine times”, and “TWENTY times”. The denial, sensitivity, defensive, and “Tender Sensibilities” habits need to be broken, e.g. Dallas County's Commissioner John Wiley Price and Judge Thomas Jones getting upset over the use of “black hole” by a white Commissioner. Sheesh!

and the rev. wright thing could have been a plan too (agreeing with slave revolt). the timing was PERFECT, and barack and his team had to know that the media was never gonna let the wright stuff go.

damn, they're good! :-)

When will the rest of the nation understand that Jesse (and Al) do not speak for Black Americans? These two are so far from the point and issues at hand that it seriously sickens me that they have the platforms that that do to speak their nonsense.

I don't expect anything out of Jesse (and Al) and wish they would go ahead and pack up their glad rags and retire from ever speaking in public. They put the Black race behind 5-10 years every time they speak.

Good gawd.

Well, the thing is, WE really don't have a “We” and “OUR” attitude, as a practical matter. In fact, we're the only people who have allowed ourselves to be duped into not actually practicing a “WE” and “OUR” attitude. The world works on the principle of group competition. It's not that we don't know that, it's just that we're the only ones who have been convinced that it's wrong to want to be that way. Meanwhile, every other people in this country is SAYING it's wrong, but behaving otherwise. Kari is a white advocate, and every letter of every comment she types here represents her advocating for and competing on behalf of her people and her culture. Objectively, there's nothing wrong with that. We have to stop thinking that there's something wrong with US doing the same thing.

Unlike Obama, McCain will make sure to never mention any problems hurting the Black community. McCain knows such talk will embarass the Black Community and that should never happen. The best thing to do is for Obama to shut his mouth and ignore all Black issues. Just like Whites have been doing for years.

Vote McCain 08

You know the answer to this question. And, this is the issue at hand and why folks are calling Obama on the carpet. He using this tactic to validate his own Whiteness. Yes, this might be a problem, but it's a problem facing all communities. We just happened to have more people in poverty, which pushes our numbers higher. Also, we have now heard this myth of the missing Black father for over a quarter of a century or more. One night I literally counted how many of my chilhood friends lacked a father in the home. Guess how many?
I only had two close friends with missing fathers. The majority had fathers in the home. The small few who lacked a father in the home knew their father and had a relationship with him. I am now 40, so I decided to look at my nephew and nieces friends. The majority of their friends had a father in the home or had a relationship with their fafher.

Let's be clear. Poverty is mean and vicious. Having a father in the home is not the be all and end all solution. It takes more than just having a father in the home if he is unemployed, undereducated, and lacks real opportunity. That is the issue at hand. People continue to throw these stats out, which don't mean anything at this point. We knew over forty years ago that this country was moving into this direction. And, when Barack starts using these stats and presenting his situtation as similiar to Black children in the inner city–it's a joke. First, his mother had a support system. She had two White parents. Secondly, he grew up fairly middle-class and seemed to lacked for very little. Check out his schooling in Hiawai. He lived in a insulated bubble, and I am not sure how much understanding and compassion he has for the situation. He can chant I was a community organizer, but I have met several shrewd and self-centered organizers (White and Black) in Chicago. These folks are in the game for themselves and could careless about anyone else. I am not sure where Obama fits in, but my gut is telling me to be aware.